Please help me out on this cable card rip off. I live near Pittsburgh PA and have a small, privately held cable company called Armstrong Cable. They have been nothing but a pleasure to deal until today. I called to order my CableCards and was informed that my bill would increase by $21.10!!!!

Here's how it breaks down:

$5.00 per cable card
$4.95 per extra HDTV outlet

I have explained to the rep and their supervisior that the S3 TiVo required two cable cards and will be hooked up to my ONLY HDTV in the house...therefore not adding an "extra HDTV" outlet. They just keeping saying that they are $9.95 per month. I've tried to educate them, but I think there either just plain stupid or want me to use their set top box. I understand the $5.00 charge but not the extra $4.95 outlet charge.

Any advise on how to handle this? Any stories similar to this? Please help, that's rape to say it bluntly!

Well, if you are returning their cable box then there should be at most only 1 extra HDTV outlet. And you can argue since it is only 1 device there really should be no additional outlet. I think the key is that applies only if you don't plan to keep their box. If you keep their box then I can see from their point of view you have 2 additional digital outlets, but still the additional outlet charges and even the CC rental charges are among the highest I've seen posted.